


The Kid That Broke Camel's Back

by IsVampirismGay



Category: Lost Boys (Movies)
Genre: Angst, Blood, Blood Drinking, Dwayne-centric, Fledglings, Gen, Laddie-centric, Not Beta Read, Pre-Canon, Vampire Turning, Vampires, might put them in a series if i write at least one more of this type, sometimes you just have to write something vaguely sad and this is how life is, this is another one of "how the boys became vampires" ones
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-30
Updated: 2019-07-30
Packaged: 2020-07-27 11:06:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20044966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IsVampirismGay/pseuds/IsVampirismGay
Summary: To be fair, Max has been holding up pretty well. Until one day he wasn't.





	The Kid That Broke Camel's Back

**Author's Note:**

> Me, sitting down to write this thing: haha no way Laddie is an actual human name, it must be a nickname  
Me, after this all is already written and watching the movie for the 15435th time: hOLD THE FUCK UP

_“Sleep all day. Party all night. Never grow old. Never die. It’s fun to be a vampire.”_

One might argue that taking a bunch of barely legal teenagers and giving them immortality is a recipe for disaster. Just think about all the chaos and havoc they would cause! But undoubtedly they would never run out of ideas, never manage to be bored for too long and never grow tired of eternity.

Lost Boys were forever young and reckless and the – well, not exactly _living –_ proof that despite what most people might think, barely legal teenagers are probably the _best _candidates for receiving immortality.

\---

Now, not every vampire was like that. For example, if you would take a middle-aged man and turn him into a vampire, you would get someone with a permanent midlife crisis and a complete disregard for the sanctity of human life. This man would find himself staring in the cold, unfeeling eyes of eternity and realized that his feelings of inadequacy and unfulfillment were fingers of toddler-shaped fate and he was the ant they were crushing.

Let’s say that there is a man like this. Let’s say that his name is Max and that he also happens to be the head of Santa Carla’s vampire gang. 

To be fair, given the circumstances, Max was doing pretty well. He spent his first fifty of so years trailing behind his sire, trying to get the love and approval he never got from his father, until his sire got staked by a hunter and Max almost suffered the same fate. This then led to a period of wallowing in self-pity while pretending to be a nobleman, flaunting the wealth he stole from his deceased sire. After that he felt a bit tired and has taken a century long nap.

Then he woke up and thought he was sort of lonely so he decided to find himself a worthy woman. He spent a few decades trying to turn various charming ladies, only to be met with rejection and angry husbands. After that he decided women were a waste of time and that maybe he should get some youngins that he could groom into respectable vampires.

In his times people had to grow up pretty quickly and after puberty did its job you were already considered a young adult. After the second world war, however, when the economical status of the population started improving and education became more easily accessible, people didn’t have to grow up that quickly and the irresponsible teenagers came to be.

Max sired four young men who absolutely oozed potential and together they settled down in Santa Carla. Unfortunately Max didn’t really bother to keep up with the social changes for the last hundred years or so and unknowingly acquired a band of unruly teenagers.

The thing about vampirism is that it preserves your age in more ways than just physical. Just as Max got to be forever a middle-aged man, so did his boys get to be forever teenaged. They might become a bit more world-weary, knowing and independent with time, but at the core they will always be their rowdy 18-year-old selves.

Once Max got over the disappointment over today’s youth he calmed down and finally the toddler’s fingers did their work and crushed the ant.

\---

The boys noticed that there was something weird going on with Max. It started with him purchasing a video store, _mingling _with humans and escalated to a whole new level one evening when he invited them all to dinner.

First of all, there wasn’t much food involved other than the old jeweled bottle of his blood that everyone had to take at least a sip from. Then things got _really weird_, because he started talking about them as a family and generally acted like a really fucked up human. He acted like he was their father and he talked about finding them a mother figure and some more siblings. He sounded like he wanted to play human and have a neat little family like in one of those cheesy movies he had in his little store. The boys might have been young both in human and vampire years, but they were old enough to know this was all a load of bullshit and that Max must have been losing it.

\---

Then they were left to their own devices for a while, until Max declared that they should go on a hunt together. He has tracked down a family of tourists who were camping just a bit too far away from the town for their own good. A couple in their early thirties, a middle-aged cousin and a pair of old, but lively grandparents. Once they had all been bled dry and the vampiric visages have receded, the boys realized that their sire has disappeared. Following the call of their own blood, they climbed into the clunky camper.

They were greeted by the sight of Max sitting on the floor with a kid in his lap. Max was saying some gentle nonsense in his ear, while the boy stared at nothing in particular, drinking loudly from a juice box.

“Do you like it?” Max asked. The boy nodded and Max handed him another box. The putrid smell emerging from it was unmistakenly Max’s blood.

Lost Boys stared at the scene, robbed of their usual chatter and laughter. Max finally looked up and smiled.

“Boys, say hello to your little brother!”

Dwayne felt David tense up next to him and then he heard Paul’s voice, who as usual was unable to stay quiet.

“Hey Dwayne, didn’t you say you’ve always wanted to have kids?”

\---

Children’s minds are very sensitive. You can’t expose a child to all the blood and gore of vampire life and expect them to carry on like nothing has happened. These things can mess you up big time even if you’re a fully grown, mature adult. Making a child drink vampire blood and then expecting them to make their first kill is just fucked up.

Vampires may be cold-blooded killers and overall bastards but they still have _standards_.

\---

And Max has thrown all these standards straight through the window of that fucking camper. Dwayne has found himself wondering how would that child react to the carnage outside. Would he start crying and never stop? Would he throw up, unable to even look at the bodies of his family? Would he think they were going to eat him too? Would he become nothing but a shell of a person, walking through his life like he was dreaming, staring at the world but not seeing anything?

Dwayne has never been a religious man, but when he was watching the little boy slurp Max’s blood through a straw he found himself praying to anyone that might be listening for this to be nothing but a horrible dream.

\---

“Hi, I’m Paul!”

Torn from his trance, Dwayne twitched and forced a friendly smile on his face. He stepped forward and crouched next to the boy.

“Hey buddy, my name is Dwayne.” He paused for a moment, trying to think of what can you even say to a blood-high child.

“Do you like motorbikes? I have one and I can show it to you,” he said gently. The kid finally wiped that empty look from his face and focused on Dwayne. He nodded and drunkenly wiggled out of Max’s lap. Dwayne offered him his hand and carefully led him out, making sure that he obstructed the sight of the bodies.

Luckily the bikes were parked behind some trees and shrubbery so the carnage stayed hidden. Dwayne led the boy to his bike and the rest of the vampires followed. Max and David stayed a bit away from the group, arguing in hushed voices.

“This one is mine,” Said Dwayne, petting the seat, “Do you want to sit on it?” The kid nodded and Dwayne lifted him on his bike. Max and David were still arguing in the background while Marko looked back and forth between them and Paul was swinging his limbs around, dancing to one of the songs that were always playing in his head.

The boy didn’t notice any of it, he was just staring at the bike and trailing his fingers over the handlebars. Dwayne realized he probably shouldn’t let the kid dissociate again so he started babbling about the bike, not really knowing what else to do.

“… So you see, I actually found this part on a wreckage that someone just left on the beach, it’s from a 60’s model and...” Dwayne kept talking and with each sentence the kid’s eyes seemed to be a bit clearer and the drunken sway seemed to lessen. Dwayne was so preoccupied with the boy that he didn’t notice Max and David had finally reaching some sort of an agreement until David’s hand clasped on his shoulder. “We’re taking care of the kid, not Max.” he whispered and Dwayne nodded in acknowledgment.

David moved on and loudly declared, “Time to go to sleep, boys!” Everyone except for Max started cheering and whooping, relieved to be back in familiar territory. 

Dwayne nudged the kid. “I have to move you a bit so we can go for a ride, okay?” The boy nodded, his eyes shining with excitement. “Just hold onto me tight, we don’t want you to fall off, okay?” Dwayne said after he climbed on the bike. The others were already revving up and Dwayne sped off after them as soon as he felt the boy get a good grip.

\---

Lost Boys never had any particular need for beds or bedrooms, since they slept in a cave, hanging from the pipes. They did, however, sometimes have food for a sleepover so they could play with it before eating it. Some of the rooms that weren’t filled with rubble, trash and pieces of half-rotten furniture were in living condition and nothing but occasional blood stain could tell what happened to people that would sometimes sleep there.

It was getting close to dawn when they arrived to the sunken hotel and the kid was already yawning when they descended the stairs to the lobby. Dwayne let him take his hand and mumbled something about going to bed before leading him into one of the more presentable-looking rooms. He helped the boy take off his shoes and jacket and covered him with a blanket. He sat on the edge of the bed and brushed boy’s hair out of his eyes.

“Time to go to sleep, buddy. Would you like a goodnight kiss?” Dwayne asked awkwardly, trying not to get into kid’s space too much, but still being as nice and warm as he could. The boy nodded, pulling the blanket up and trying to burrow in its warmth. Dwayne kissed his forehead and then stood up.

“Night night, pal.” He gave the kid a little wave and took a few steps back, but the boy then lunged out of his blanket cocoon. Dwayne rushed back to the bed, holding the kid who was still panicking a little. “Hey, buddy what’s wrong?” He asked and the boy tugged on his jacket a little.

“Do you want me to stay with you?” The kid nodded and tugged on his jacket once more for emphasis. “Alright then, just scoot over a bit so I can get in too.” Dwayne quickly took off his boots and jacket, while the boy was looking at him expectantly. He climbed in the bed and covered them both. The kid snuggled up to him, oblivious to the unnatural coolness of Dwayne’s body.

"This time it's night night for real, okay?" he murmured into kid's hair.

Dwayne thought that the boy has already fallen asleep when he heard a tiny, barely audible voice say “Night night Dwayne.”

\---

Next night, well after sunset, Dwayne and the new kid finally appeared in the lobby. The rest of the vampires were already up for hours and were getting restless, but David has forbidden them from bugging Dwayne and the child. Paul has immediately sprung on his feet, jumping from the couch where he was smoking another one of his joints.

“Hey kid, slept well?” He sauntered cheerfully towards the boy who was still clutching Dwayne’s hand. Paul squatted next to him, offering him his most dazzling smile and offered his hand. “Wanna play?” The boy looked at the hand warily, until Dwayne patted his shoulder and said “He’s a nice guy, I’m sure you two will have fun together.” The kid nodded and slowly took Paul’s hand. Paul whooped and swept up the boy in his arms.

“Let’s go, pal!” He swung him around, eliciting laughter from the kid.

Dwayne looked on the scene with a smile on his face before turning towards David. His expression darkened and he dragged David out of his wheelchair to the corridor leading to the rooms. 

_“We need to kill Max.”_

\---

That kid was only half-vampire, tricked into drinking Max’s blood, but not yet making his first kill, so he could be saved. The problem was that in order to save him, the boys would have to kill their sire. Which was due to some weird blood-related bond impossible. When Max was showing them how to be proper vampires he also told them that a fledgeling can’t kill their sire. Marko was the only one who tried, having had a tough initiation, but the wooden stake just crumbled into ash when it was supposed to pierce Max’s heart. Luckily, Marko came around eventually and none of them tried to kill Max again.

But now they faced a whole new situation and they had no idea what to do. At first David thought they would just wring the boy’s neck one night or let him make the first kill and leave him in the sun, but now Dwayne has gotten _attached _and things got complicated. And even if David didn’t want to admit it, he couldn’t really bring himself to end the kid’s life so unceremoniously. They were all a little soft for the ankle-biter and something had to be done about Max anyway.

When the fledgelings decide to have their sire killed it is usually as a result of a power struggle, not out of concern for a _human._ It was a whole different situation and David found himself wondering if maybe he was the one losing his mind too.

\---

Dwayne looked at people and saw food. He was a vampire after all, which meant he was an apex predator. He has never felt like much of a monster. Do you fault a lioness for catching and killing an antelope? Do you call a bear a monster just because it kills its food? Vampires were just another species of predatory animals and humans were its prey.

A few weeks after Dwayne has made his first kill he saw a nice patch depicting a snarling jaguar and he sewed it on his jacket to remind himself of what he was.

But now he was feeling sorry for a human and wanted him to stay human. He was a jaguar wanting a capybara to have a nice and pleasant life and it confused the absolute _shit _out of him.

\---

In the midst of chatter and laughter that was echoing through the lobby, Paul randomly turned to the boy, asking, “What’s even your name anyway?”

The noise that the rest of the gang was making died down and everyone turned to look at the kid expectantly. He just shook his head and pressed harder against the pillows, as if he was trying to squeeze himself into the hole between the cushions of the couch.

“You don’t want to tell us?” Dwayne asked softly, to which the boy nodded. The Lost Boys looked at each other helplessly, not really knowing what to do with that.

“Do you want us to give you a new name?” The kid seemed to consider that for a few seconds and then nodded. Paul’s face lit up and then him and Marko started spitballing names, each dumber than the other. Dwayne turned to look at the kid to gauge his reactions and laughed at him pulling a face at every suggestion.

“Guys, I don’t think he likes any of those.”

Paul and Marko looked at each other in disappointment. “Aww, I kinda liked Drewbert!” Paul quipped and got cuffed on the head by David immediately after. “Alright, I’m sorry, laddie.”

The kid’s face light up and he nodded enthusiastically. Paul laughed. “Look how appreciative he is of apologies!”

The boy facepalmed.

Paul turned to shove a bit at Marko. “Not like you, asshole!”

“Language!” cut in David, giving Paul a stern look. “No cuss words around children.”

“I don’t think all that enthusiasm was because of an apology, Paul,” said Dwayne. He turned to the kid. “Do you want us to call you Laddie?” The boy nodded and looked at all of them hopefully.

“Then you are now called Laddie!” shouted David and the cheers erupted from everyone, echoing around the lobby. A huge smile broke over Laddie’s face and he jumped over to high five Paul.

“This calls for a celebration! How about we go visit the Boardwalk, Laddie?” asked David, to which the kid happily agreed.

\---

Laddie spent the night trying out all games and rides he was allowed to get on and Dwayne bought him a giant ice cream. Earlier in the night David broke away from the group, saying he has to “take care of some business” and left the boys to themselves. When they were finally ready to go home they found David at the bikes. He was hiding something behind his back.

“Come here, Laddie!” He motioned to their youngest to come closer and then he showed him what he was hiding. It was a small jacket, fit for a child, tailored in an old-timey military style. Laddie’s mouth gaped in awe and he immediately took the jacket and tried it on.

“Since you’re one of us, I figured you might as well look the part.” Said David with a smile, looking at Laddie spin and swing his arms in giddiness.

“Let’s go home, boys!”

\---

After Max recruited also a girl, she took to Laddie as well and spent almost as much time with him as Dwayne or Paul did. Then one day Marko got staked and the boy and the girl were gone. The next night when the remaining three went to seek revenge they felt both anger and sadness over the loss of their companion but Dwayne in the end couldn’t bring himself to kill that kid and he found himself with an arrow piercing his heart, pinning him to the stereo behind.

As electricity was shaking him he found himself oddly at peace, thinking about joining Marko and how maybe, just maybe, these kids will somehow be able to save Laddie.

**Author's Note:**

> i love Dwayne and Laddie a lot, ok???
> 
> Anyway come talk to me on Tumblr, I'm isvampirismgay


End file.
